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“Arrow” recap (3.17): In Felicity We (Should) Trust

Previously on Arrow, Felicity and Ray started dating despite my continued hope that Sara will rise from the grace, ARGUS formed a special force made up of ex-cons called the Suicide Squad, and Oliver refused Ra’s al Ghul’s offer to take over the League of Assassins which lead to Ra’s dressing up as the Arrow and killing people in his name.

We begin at Diggle and Lyla’s wedding, where Oliver is being the Worst Best Man and Felicity is being the loveliest little techie around.

Ray is her plus one, and Diggle whispers a dad-like threat in his ear about not hurting Felicity. Oliver turns on his rich-boy charm and is overly polite while shaking Ray’s hand, doing his very best not to let his heartbreak show through. Thanks to a last-minute change of plans and Ray conveniently already being an ordained minister, he ends up marrying Diggle and Lyla, being funny and lovely, and damn if I can figure out why I don’t like him. I actually went so far to look up what else Brandon Routh has been in to see if it was residual anger, but I don’t think that’s it. I think I have just developed a genuine distrust for new characters from watching shows like Pretty Little Liars.

At the reception, Oliver asks Laurel why she’s wearing a cast and Laurel says that her new trainer is…enthusiastic and it’s wearing out her wrist (eh hem) but doesn’t tell him that it’s Nyssa. Felicity joins them and tells Laurel that she caught the bouquet and they got all up in each other’s personal space and I didn’t hate it.

Oliver tells Felicity that Ray seems like a good guy, and that as long as she’s happy, he’s happy, because that’s all he ever wanted for her. He seems to genuinely mean it, but before they can get into it, Team Arrow’s phones go off because of breaking news that the Arrow has returned to his murderous ways, which they all know is simply untrue.

They head back to the Arrow Cave and watch a press conference in which Captain Lance is ready to hang the Arrow up by his tights and Laurel is shouting lawyer words like “insubstantial evidence.” Ray takes over then and says either way, they need to apprehend the Arrow and bring him to trial and that’s that. Because owning Palmer Tech gives him more pull than being police captain or district attorney, apparently.

Oliver knows that this is Ra’s trying to force him into taking the offer to be the next Demon’s Head, but he’s not going to back down that easily. He asks Felicity to keep an eye on crimes so they can try to beat the Fake Arrow to the punch, but sends Diggle and Lyla on their honeymoon. They are reluctant, but eventually agree.

Unfortunately that’s not what was in the cards for them, because when they get in their limo, Deadshot is waiting there for them. He takes them to Amanda at A.R.G.U.S. and she tells them there’s a US Senator stuck in a hostage situation in Kasnia that Lyla has to take care of immediately. Diggle says it’s their honeymoon so he’s going with her, and asks who besides Deadshot will be joining them. And right on cue, Cupid flies in.

While they head to the hospital where the Senator is being held, Cupid asks Lyla about details of her wedding like they’re at brunch. She talks about her own dream wedding to the Arrow, and Deadshot teases her for being out of her gourd, both for believing she’s going to marry the Arrow, and for believing the life they lead can include any kind of love life at all, let alone family.

Roy tries to make a plan to get all the hostages out but Lyla tells her that the Senator is the only one they were sent to extract, because the hostages aren’t US Citizens, much to Diggle’s chagrin.

Roy uses his underground sources to find a likely target but Oliver won’t let him come on the mission because the League of Assassins is a bit out of his…well, league. So Oliver goes alone to find the Fake Arrow, who is killing drug dealers who were transporting drugs inside STUFFED PANDA BEARS. Truly the worst crime. Oliver fights the Fake Arrow and rips off his hood, but it’s just a random Assassin, and soon more Fake Arrows appear. Oliver fights them all and manages to take them all down. Maseo appears and says the Fake Arrows are Hydra-wait, wrong show. He says the Fake Arrows are like a hydra, and cutting one off just results in the respawning of two more. Maseo tells Oliver to just give into Ra’s and accept the offer, then disappears in a cloud of smoke, taking the Fake Arrows with him.

Meanwhile, Ray and his Supersuit to fly to the drug deal and uses the tech to scan the Arrow’s face and identify him as one Oliver Queen.

Felicity goes back to Ray’s office, where he tells her that Oliver Queen is the Arrow. Caught off guard and not the best liar, she’s like “wut,” but he knows she’s been working with the Arrow; it explains almost all of her shifty behavior. She pinky promises that Oliver didn’t kill the people he’s being accused of killing, and begs Ray to just trust her on this one.

Felicity says Ray has no idea how much Oliver has lost, and how much he has fought to change and grow. Seeing her pupils form into little hearts, he asks her if she has feelings for Oliver, and her knee-jerk reaction is yes, but what she meant was she has feelings like “trust” and “pride” for him, and the romantic feelings are in the past.

Ray says he thought he could trust her and make her a partner at work and in his life but now he’s not so sure. She asks him what his plan is and he says he’s going to bring the Arrow to justice. Felicity has a feeling this doesn’t mean sitting in a room and talking maturely about things.

At Arrow HQ, Oliver compares his arrows to the Fake Arrow arrows, but can’t find a difference. I imagine because he’s spent the past two years or so shooting them around the city. They couldn’t have been too hard to collect.

Felicity comes in and tells him everything about Ray, from the supersuit and his own vigilantism to him knowing that Oliver is the Arrow. She feels bad that it was her facial recognition software that did it, but Oliver is more upset she kept him in the dark about all that. She tells them that Ray is on the way to the precinct and asks what they should do, so they tip off Laurel and she takes over the case.

Ray tells Laurel everything, but she shrugs off his “proof” as nothing that would hold up in court and gives him a hard enough time about that he remembers Laurel and Oliver are old friends and ex-lovers and knows she’s protecting him; Ray also knows (or realizes just then) that she’s the Black Canary. Ray realizes he’s not going to get anywhere with her, so he heads off to seek out justice on his own.

In Kasnia, Diggle and the Suicide Squad descend on the hospital, guns blazing. The Senator is pissed; no one was supposed to die, and no one from A.R.G.U.S. was supposed to show up. He pulls a gun and starts shooting, and Deadshot saves Cupid, taking a bullet to the arm, and like a heat-seeking missile, Cupid’s affections are turned onto Deadshot.

The Senator comes over Lyla’s walkie and says that his plan was to create a disaster so he could come out as the hero and eventually run for president, but since that plan was ruined, he has to kill all the witnesses. Because of course he does.

Lyla uses her heat tracker and finds out that the Senator rigged the place with explosives and is planning on being the only survivor. Lyla regrets coming on this mission, and asks Diggle what kind of parents they are, but Deadshot tells them to shut their worried mouths because he’s going to make sure they get back to their baby girl, because he couldn’t be the father he wanted to be. He’s going to make them prove him wrong about not being able to have a family and do what they do.

In Starling City, Oliver goes to Palmer Tech and the two vigilantes ruffle their feathers at each other like a couple of fighting peacocks. Oliver promises Ray he didn’t kill anyone, but Ray says he’s not sure he can trust Oliver’s sanity after spending five years on an island; he saw LOST. Oliver tells Ray that he doesn’t have to believe him, but that he should trust Oliver. Ray says Felicity has a vagina and feelings and therefore cannot possibly be trusted at face value.

Felicity gets an alert about a 911 call and sends Oliver to the power plant, where Roy meets him, ready to fight the Fake Arrows. But instead of Fake Arrows, The Atom flies in and electrocutes Roy. At first, Oliver’s arrows are useless against the metal suit, but Oliver sees a weak spot and hits it, turning the suit from a flying machine to an overly heavy suit of armor.

Oliver points his arrow at Ray and says the Arrow of his imagination would kill Ray, but he won’t. He helps Ray up and tells him that Felicity chose Ray, so trust her. Plus she’s literally the smartest one from here to Central City, so seriously, just trust her.

In Kasnia, the Senator is apologizing to his hostages that he’s about to kill when the Suicide Squad busts in one more time. Diggle and Lyla distract him by pretending to surrender and as soon as he realizes they used to be a team of four, Deadshot starts dropping bodies. The Squad gets everyone out, and tell Deadshot to get off the roof, but he never intended to get out of this mission alive. He tells Diggle and Lyla to get home to their baby girl, then truly became a member of the Suicide Squad.

Meanwhile, Felicity goes to see Ray and apologizes for lying. Ray in turn apologizes for not trusting her, which he does now because a dude told him to.

They kiss and it’s whatever. And in this moment I think I figured out the problem I have with Ray. I think it’s the same problem Oliver has with Ray. I think Oliver and I both want Felicity to be happy, in theory, but down deeper we want her to be happy with who we want her to be happy with. Oliver wants it to be himself, and I want it to be Sara.

At home, Diggle tries to tell Lyla he’s leaving Team Arrow, but she won’t let him, because he’s doing truly great and important things. Also because Lyla just quit her job at A.R.G.U.S. because she realized her job is kind of super shady. She wants to set a good example for her daughter. (Anyone else want her to join Team Arrow?!)

Felicity thanks Oliver for proving her right and being worth standing up for, then heads to a meeting with the Mayor as Ray’s right hand (wo)man. Everyone is fighting about what to do about the Arrow when the mayor is shot through the heart with an arrow by Maseo, dressed as the Arrow. Felicity runs to help her, finding herself in Maseo’s crosshairs herself.

What did you think of “Suicidal Tendencies”?

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